Fresh Lead Emerges in AIDS-Vaccine Hunt

Researchers Gain New Insights Into One Way That Antibodies Can Develop

By

Betsy McKay

Updated Oct. 21, 2012 8:46 p.m. ET

A team of researchers has identified one way the human body can develop powerful antibodies to protect it against the AIDS virus, offering a new lead in the quest for a vaccine.

The findings, the latest in a series of advances in AIDS research in the past few years, are significant because scientists were able to establish a link between a change in the virus after infection and the formulation of the antibodies that fight it.